Profitability and market need for such medical devices used in the
operating room, that are linked and controlled via internet (i.e.
similar to internet appliances).

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Clarification of Question by brooklyn-ga on 18 Sep 2002 12:44 PDT

Actually I'm somewhat familiar with the advances in telesurgery and
telemedicine. The area of interest is more market driven need in the
use of speciality specific  devices used in surgery
(e.g.differentiating neural tissue from vascular tissue) and being
internet enabled to facilitate more practical graphic user interfaces;
in addition to valuable data base repositories.

At this time, it's still in the category of a solution looking for a
problem. Remotely controlled surgical devices have been developed and
used, and hold some promise for the situation where a surgeon with
special skills could perform surgery remotely, with the procedure
occurring in a location where such skills are lacking. The battlefield
is an example. The state of the art both of the devices and the remote
access is such that it's not currently practical: the logistics of
surgeon availability, and the issue of starting something which could
be interrupted either by device or access failure. As a surgeon, I
think the time is well beyond the foreseeable when it would provide
safer care, as opposed to  transporting a patient to where the care is
available, or the surgeon to the patient. Profitability can't really
be calculated at this stage of development; the cost of producing and
maintaining such equipment can't yet be established, nor is there yet
any sort of handle on which situations, and how often, would be
appropriate for use.